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n You’d imagine, given the potential and the romance,nthat the Monmouth Rebellion would be the source material for dozens ofnfictional novels based either directly on it, or using it as a backgroundnagainst which a story unfolds. Oddly, there aren’t that many.
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| R D Blackmore – Lorna Doone |
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nPerhaps the mostnpopular novel that is still read today is R D Blackmore’s Lorna Doone,nfirst published in 1869 it has remained in print ever since, and has beennadapted for films and television dramas several times. Subtitled A Romancenof Exmoor, it tells the story of the eponymous Lorna Doone, a member of thennotorious family of Doone, once noble but now outlawed, who falls in love withnthe respectable farmer John Ridd.
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| After Sedgemoor – Lorna Doone |
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nLorna has been promised to the heir of thenDoone clan, the piratical Carver Doone, and is, in fact, the kidnapped heiressnof the wealthy Dugal family. She is sent to London as a ward of Chancery andnfollowing the death of Charles II, the Doones side with the Duke of Monmouth,nhoping to regain their lost lands and titles. After the battle of Sedgemoor,nJohn Ridd is captured and sent for trial in London, where he proves hisninnocence and is reunited with Lorna. During their wedding, Carver Doone burstsninto the ceremony and shoots Lorna, and is chased onto Exmoor by Ridd.
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| John Ridd and Carver Doone on Exmoor |
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nTheynfight and Carver is killed, Ridd returns to the church and finds Lorna stillnlives. She recovers and they live happily ever after. It is, as the prefacenpoints out, a ‘romance’ rather than an historical novel, but none the worse fornthat, and it has stood the test of time well.
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| Arthur Conan Doyle – Micah Clarke |
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nAnother work that uses the battlenof Sedgemoor as a background is Micah Clarke (1889) by Sir Arthur ConannDoyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame. The novel is a bildungsroman – itnfollows the life of a naive boy as he grows into mature manhood through a seriesnof adventures, culminating in Sedgemoor and its aftermath. All the historicalncharacters appear, in one form or another, along with comedy West Countrynyokels who say things like, “If it plaize you, zur,” but the novelnconsiders the religious implications of the Rebellion in some detail (which isnnowhere as bad as it sounds), and is improved by Doyle’s obvious ability ofnbeing able to spin a good yarn.
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| Arthur Conan Doyle – Title Page – Micah Clarke |
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nDoyle’s works other than the Holmes stories arenoften overlooked, which is a shame as they are rather good, in a late Victoriannadventure story kind of a way, and one of the reasons that Doyle ‘killed off’nSherlock at the Reichenbach Falls was that he felt his other works were beingnovershadowed by the Holmes legacy.
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| Monmouth in Taunton – A C Doyle – Micah Clarke |
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nPopular sentiment demanded that Doyle bringnback Holmes, but the latter stories are nowhere near as good as the earliernones and some are down-right formulaic, as Doyle went through the motions tonsatisfy the popular appetite.
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| Rafael Sabatini – Captain Blood |
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nSlightly later is Rafael Sabatini’s CaptainnBlood (1922), which tells the story of an Irish Doctor, Peter Blood, who isnin practice at Bridgewater, Somerset, and who is drawn into the MonmouthnRebellion when he treats the rebels injured during the battle of Sedgemoor.nFound guilty by association by Judge Jeffreys, Blood is sold into slavery andntransported to the Caribbean, where his skills as a physician are put to goodnuse.
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| Walking the Plank – R Sabatini – Captain Blood |
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nAfter the Spanish attack Bridgetown, Blood and other slaves escape,ncapture a Spanish ship and become buccaneers and the scourge of the Spanish Main.nAfter the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Blood is pardoned and goes on to becomenthe Governor of Jamaica. Only the first couple of chapters are Monmouth-relatednbut the courtroom scenes with Judge Jeffreys are excellent and recreate thencorruption and arbitrary nature of Jeffreys’ ‘justice’ convincingly. Sabatininuses a number of models in his creation of Peter Blood, including the piratenHenry Morgan and the real-life Irish adventurer Colonel Thomas Blood.
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| Colonel Thomas Blood |
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nBlood isnremembered as the man who stole the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London,nwhich is a story in itself. After the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660,nthe exchequer had insufficient funds to pay the salary of Talbot Edwards,nassistant keeper of the Royal regalia, who was allowed instead to keep whatnfees he could earn by showing the Crown Jewels to interested visitors.
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| Crown Jewels – The Crown |
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nEdwardsnwas approaching eighty years of age and lived with his family in rooms aboventhe chamber where the Jewels were housed in the Martin Tower. In April 1671,nThomas Blood disguised himself as a parson and went with a woman whom he saidnwas his wife to see the jewels (his real wife was ill, at their home innHolcroft, Lancashire). As Edwards was showing them the jewels, ‘Mrs’ Bloodnsuffered a ‘qualme to the stomack’ and called for brandy. Revived, shenwas led upstairs to lie on Mrs Edwards’s bed until she was well enough tonleave.
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| Crown Jewels – The Sceptre |
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nSeveral days later, Parson Blood returned with a thank you gift of whitengloves for Mrs Edwards, and over the next couple of weeks he became a regular visitornat the Tower. He mentioned to the Edwards that he had a nephew (entirelynfictitious) who had two or three hundred pounds a year and was in need of anwife, and might be married to the Edwards’s daughter.
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| Crown Jewels – The Orb |
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nPlans were made for thennephew to be introduced to his prospective bride, and on May 9thn1671, Parson Thomas Blood and three other men arrived at the Martin Tower.nWould it be possible, the good parson said to assistant keeper Edwards, for hisnfriends to see the Crown Jewels whilst they waited for Mrs Blood to arrive.nEdwards took the party downstairs, where they jumped on him, forced a woodenngag into his mouth (with a hole drilled in it to allow him to breathe), put anniron peg on his nose and threw a cloak over his head. They told him to remain quietnbut when he continued to thrash about, they knocked him insensible with anwooden mallet and stabbed him a couple of times.
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| Colonel Blood steals the Crown Jewels |
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nBlood took the mallet andnflattened the King Edward Crown, which he hid beneath his clerical robes.nAnother man, Parrot (who may well be the same Robert Parrot hanged for his partnin the Monmouth Rebellion) took the orb and hid it in his baggy trousers,nwhilst the third, Tom Hunt, started to file the sceptre into two halves, to fitnit into a bag. By coincidence, Edwards’s young son returned home from the warsnin Europe on this May morning and was surprised when he was met by a young man,nRichard Hallowell (or Holloway), standing outside to door of his parents’ndwelling. Young Edwards mounted the stairs and Hallowell followed him up, stopping at the floor below to alert his three associates. Hunt droppednthe sceptre and the four robbers ran from the Martin Tower. Upstairs, MrsnEdwards and her daughter told young Edwards about the young nephew and ParsonnBlood, and he went back downstairs to find his father.
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| Colonel Blood steals the Crown Jewels |
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nTalbot Edwards raisednthe alarm, shouting, “Treason! The Crown is stolen!” and young Edwardsnand his brother-in-law, Captain Beckman, took up the alarm. Pursuit ensued, asnthe fugitives passed under the Bloody Tower and along Water Lane, towards thenByward Tower, where Blood shot and injured a yeoman. They ran over thendrawbridge, and along the wharf towards the Iron Gate, exposing themselves tonthe full view of the guards. Captain Beckman caught up to Blood as he was mountingnhis horse, and Blood fired a pistol point blank at Bechman’s head, who managednto dodge the shot. They fought and Blood and Parrot were overpowered and takennprisoner; Hunt made it to his horse and began to ride away but struck his headnon a pole sticking out of a laden wagon, was knocked from the horse and alsoncaptured.
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| Colonel Thomas Blood |
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nIn gaol, Colonel Blood refused to answer any questions unless thenKing himself asked them and so, on May 12th, he was brought beforenCharles II, his brother the Duke of York and other members of the royalnhousehold. Far from being angry, Charles was highly amused by the effrontery ofnthe incident and roared with laughter when the details were told to him. Henpardoned Blood, restored his lands to him, made him a member of the royal bodyguardnand awarded him a pension of £500 a year. There have been rumours and theoriesnever since that there were some deeper reasons other than simple theftninvolved, as there always are in stories of this sort.
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nBlood became involved inna libel case with his patron, the Duke of Buckingham, and was imprisoned at thenKing’s Bench prison, where his health was damaged, and soon after his releasenhe passed into a coma and died on August 24th 1680. There werenrumours that his death was a sham and the living man was living hiddennelsewhere, so some days after the burial his body was disinterred and anninquest held to identify the remains, which were then reburied. The storynremains one of the classics of audaciousness, bravado and downrightnbrass-neckery.
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